Insanely busy

January 14, it rained very hard and Ellie drove us to Boston while I knit a sock. We had a festive dinner with my parents in honor of their 50th wedding anniversary. They had the decency to be embarrassed about it, as neither of them could possibly be that old. They decided to pick up an option on another 13 weeks, together, too.

The waiter told me to squeeze in; I was NOT drunk. Not that drunk, anyhow.
Do I need to add a key to the players again?

The next day, I pondered Arisia--the certain loss of a lot of money--and decided to go straight from Back Bay to Woburn, where I visited friends and met Ellie, who drove to Northampton, while I knit the sock. After some indecision, I spent the night there, getting to hang out with the very nice women on her hall.

The next early evening I drove to Henniker. Couldn't knit the sock. The next day was Tuesday. I picked up my boss, who has been out of the Bible Society/ Council of Churches office due to some broken bones, and he decided I should go to New York for an 11 o'clock meeting on Wednesday. It was supposed to be the ABS consulting with the local Bible societies, only without giving us any agenda or hotel reservations in advance, which was why I had not know when or if I was going.

I visited the archaeology office and found I am getting paid for the middle two weeks of the session of field school, as the total finds from the discovery of the site were in a medium-sized bag on Dick's desk. He says he doesn't think there will be much lab stuff to supervise. Two weeks is, coincidentally I am SURE, the length of time I am going to be given off from my real job this summer, but I may see if I can pry another week out of the office (unpaid) and be in the field. Anyway, this was not bad news at all.

I also bought a pair of real people shoes to wear in NYC, as my office boss thought the slushy hiking boots were not New York-ish. He did not want them to think I am a hick. Despite the lack of Vibram soles, vents, laces, or ankles these were really comfortable shoes. I went home and packed and drove back from home to Concord to get on 93 and return to my parents' apartment.

The next day was not as foul as they had predicted and I carried my cardboard suitcase and the dreams in my heart to the Acela on foot, proving my faith in the Shoes well-placed (which was a good thing, because I left the hiking boots with my parents). Got on the train at Track One at 7:15 like the guy said and found to the conductor's horror I was on a local. They made a very kind fast emergency stop at 128, where I did pick up the Acela. It was full of displaced air travelers. I sat next to a Size 4 blonde from an advertising agency, so I had lots of self-hatred to get on with and finished the sock I had started knitting in the car with Ellie on Saturday. And started a scarf. I don't think the straight garter-stitch horizontal cast-on-150-stitches necessarily works with all novelty yarns.

The winds which had closed the airports brought wires down, so the Acela was an hour late into NY. Winds and rain drove the New Yorkers into taxis, so I was 2 hours late for the meeting I was going to at the American Bible Society. It may not surprise my readers that some enthusiasts of Bible societies are a bit right of center. (If you need more information, email me and I will rant, but I am better now.)

After a long time, they set us free in our nice hotel in the low 70-Streets at 3:30 and I went out in search of an internet portal I could use. This gave me a wonderful walk with some amazing grocery stores

olives and sun-dried tomatoes and so on
multiple mushrooms

the coffee was more photogenic than the tea, sadly

and some views of sunset (which I was too lazy to photograph) on the buildings down the wide streets full of every kind of people under Heaven (which had stopped raining. It was in the high 50's Fahrenheit).

My shoes did what they could, but my knee is not too great and my ankles are not too great and I was tired when I got back to my room after an hour or so. I had a cup of tea. I watched a little X-Files. The other Bible Society people, all four of them, called from the lobby and we walked to a delicious Italian dinner at Coppola's. It was pleasant and pushed none of my rage buttons. By 8 pm I was having trouble staying awake, so we went back to the hotel, where I watched Comedy Central and enjoyed being an evil-minded liberal. I also pushed my camera over the edge of its resources and it is now permanently set on "night." Or there would be more pictures of New York, which is lovely and deserves to be in focus.

The meeting the next day included a few more, older, equally white, people--regional volunteers. I realized I was no longer having a very good time and knitted faster.

I wasn't too fond of this picture but actually, it may convey some of the 'end-of-my-seraphic-temperament -resources' feelings

At 4 Cassie (whose hat


is PERFECT for her -- she doesn't usually show her whole face so I won't, either) called and I was able to go FREE into New York with another liberal, to a yarn shop

and a perfect teashop and then to Penn Station. The train back to Boston was on time and I sat across from a tall (6'6"), pleasingly proportioned youth with long, clean hair and no pimples and an Apple laptop. My parents picked me up at the station, which I may be too old for but it was REALLY nice. My mom had also bought me a turtleneck so I had a clean shirt to wear to work on Friday.

And I haven't even reached Claudia's lovely party, but more soon.